TY - JOUR A1 - Sallen, Jeffrey A1 - Hemming, Karen A1 - Richartz, Alfred T1 - Facilitating dual careers by improving resistance to chronic stress BT - effects of an intervention programme for elite student athletes JF - European journal of sport science : official journal of the European College of Sport Science N2 - The starting point of this contribution is the potential risk to health and performance from the combination of elite sporting careers with the pursuit of education. In European sport science and politics, structural measures to promote dual careers in elite sports have been discussed increasingly of late. In addition to organisational measures, there are calls for educational-psychological intervention programmes supporting the successful management of dual careers at the individual level. This paper presents an appropriate intervention programme and its evaluation: stress-resistance training for elite athletes (SRT-EA). It comprises 10 units, each lasting 90 minutes. It is intended for athletes and aims to improve their resistance to chronic stress. The evaluation was carried out in a quasi-experimental design, with three points of measurement (baseline, immediately after, and three months after) and two non-randomised groups: an intervention group (n=128) and an untreated control group (n=117). Participants were between 13 and 20 years of age (53.5% male) and represented various Olympic sports. Outcome variables were assessed with questionnaires. Significant short- and mid-term intervention effects were explored. The intervention increased stress-related knowledge, general self-efficacy, and stress sensitivity. Chronic stress level, stress symptoms, and stress reactivity were reduced. In line with the intention of the intervention, the results showed short- and mid-term, small to medium-sized effects. Accordingly, separate measurements at the end of the intervention and three months later showed mostly positive subjective experiences. Thus, the results reinforce the hope that educational-psychological stress-management interventions can support dual careers. KW - Chronic stress KW - stress-resistance KW - elite athletes KW - intervention KW - evaluation Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2017.1407363 SN - 1746-1391 SN - 1536-7290 VL - 18 IS - 1 SP - 112 EP - 122 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hoffmann, Julia A1 - Palme, Rupert A1 - Eccard, Jana T1 - Long-term dim light during nighttime changes activity patterns and space use in experimental small mammal populations JF - Environmental pollution N2 - Artificial light at night (ALAN) is spreading worldwide and thereby is increasingly interfering with natural dark-light cycles. Meanwhile, effects of very low intensities of light pollution on animals have rarely been investigated. We explored the effects of low intensity ALAN over seven months in eight experimental bank vole (Myodes glareolus) populations in large grassland enclosures over winter and early breeding season, using LED garden lamps. initial populations consisted of eight individuals (32 animals per hectare) in enclosures with or without ALAN. We found that bank voles under ALAN experienced changes in daily activity patterns and space use behavior, measured by automated radio telemetry. There were no differences in survival and body mass, measured with live trapping, and none in levels of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites. Voles in the ALAN treatment showed higher activity at night during half moon, and had larger day ranges during new moon. Thus, even low levels of light pollution as experienced in remote areas or by sky glow can lead to changes in animal behavior and could have consequences for species interactions. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Myodes glareolus KW - Light pollution KW - Chronic stress KW - Survival success KW - Artificial light KW - LED Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.03.107 SN - 0269-7491 SN - 1873-6424 VL - 238 SP - 844 EP - 851 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wirkner, Janine A1 - Ventura-Bort, Carlos A1 - Schwabe, Lars A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Weymar, Mathias T1 - Chronic stress and emotion: Differential effects on attentional processing and recognition memory JF - Psychoneuroendocrinology N2 - Previous research indicates that acute stress around the time of learning facilitates attention and memory for emotionally salient information. Despite accumulating evidence for these acute stress effects, less is known about the role of chronic stress. In the present study, we therefore tested emotional and neutral scene processing and later recognition memory in female participants using hair cortisol concentrations as a biological marker for chronic stress. Event-related potentials recorded during picture viewing indicated enhanced late positive potentials (LPPs) for emotional, relative to neutral contents. These brain potentials varied as a function of long-term hair cortisol levels: hair-cortisol levels were positively related to overall LPP amplitudes. Results from recognition memory testing one week after encoding revealed better memory for emotional relative to neutral scenes. Hair-cortisol levels, however, were related to poorer memory accuracy. Taken together, our results indicate that chronic stress enhanced attentional processing during encoding of new stimuli and impaired later recognition memory. Results are discussed with regard to putatively opposite effects of chronic stress on certain brain regions (e.g., amygdala and hippocampus). KW - Chronic stress KW - Emotion KW - Event-related potential KW - Late positive potential KW - Memory KW - Hair cortisol Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.05.008 SN - 0306-4530 VL - 107 SP - 93 EP - 97 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER -